we go live to kabul, afghanistan. david, this one has got people wondering. what's going on? >> reporter: well, the news first broke by an afghan television station and then later in the day, cnn and other media received a message by an individual claiming to be a top taliban commander. that individual said that mullah omar had died of heart failure last week and a successor had already been named. the taliban, like you said, later came out and said they have been the victim of a hacking and their phones and emails have been tapped. in fact this message was phoney. cnn doesn't have any confirmation of the sort. we spoke with nato official and they have no operational knowledge on the ground. so the whereabouts of mullah omar are unknown. last believed to be in pakistan, where taliban militants have launched attacks across that border against troops down in the southern region. it's those southern and eastern regions of afghanistan that have experienced some of the highest levels of attacks. and this all comes at a very interesting time. we're seeing a hand over of seven key a